Posts Tagged ‘Prime Minister’

The Australian prime minister Jullia Gillard tripped and fell at Mahatma Gandhi‘s memorial, Rajghat, in Delhi on Wednesday after she had placed a wreath and was walking towards the television and newspaper personnel waiting for her.

Gillard, who has a long history of footwear malfunctions, brushed it all off:

“For men who get to wear flat shoes all day every day, if you wear a heel it can get embedded in soft grass and when you pull your foot out the shoes doesn’t come,” she said.

But not everybody is seeing the incident in such a matter-of-fact way. The protestors at the Koodankulam nuclear plant certainly do not; they see it as some sort of an inter-gallactic message being sent by the Mahatma to Gillard of what lies in store if her country co-operates with the Indian government.

In a press release, the protestors say:

“The People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) as well as our sympathizers all over India would like to apologize to Julia Gillard, the honorable Prime Minister of Australia, for the dangerous fall she suffered at the Raj Ghat. If we ask the local authorities in Delhi why they had not taken enough precautions to avoid such a dangerous fall and why none of the security officers could prevent an important international leader from falling on her face or for not coming to her rescue on time, we may attract more sedition charges.

“Madam Prime Minister, this whole Raj Ghat episode reflects the authorities’ utter lack of safety precautions and emergency preparedness. And your government is seriously considering selling Uranium to these folks. Maybe, Madam Prime Minister, Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Our Nation, is trying to say something to you and please listen to him.”

E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: With petrol and diesel prices going through the sky, and the energy crisis hitting all and sundry, everybody, starting from the Prime Minister down to government officials, everybody has been advocating austerity and offering advice FOC to you and me.

To masses already reeling under the weekly spiral of uninhibited inflation, all this gyaan does little to cheer you up when you consider the working style of those proffering you advice on how you should lead your life.

Let’s see what they are doing themselves to save fuel, energy or equally precious things like air, water and money:

1. Most of the electricity boards have resorted to scheduled/ unscheduled load shedding in various localities at night. However, it is not uncommon to see streetlights burning during day time, all through the day, sometimes in the same locality where the electricity office is located.

2. Monsoon rains appear to have failed so far with farmers still waiting for seeds, fertilisers and water in that order. Amidst all this we see water flowing along the road through broken/ leaking pipes for hours at a stretch and our water supply and irrigation boards couldn’t care less.

3. Petrol and diesel may be getting exorbitant for you and me, but is for the government? How else do you explain the mile-long motorcades of party workers and friends and families accompanying the chief minister, ministers and other VIPs, even for opening a hair-cutting saloon or an internet browsing centre? Why hasn’t the CM imposed a ban on the number of vehicles that can accompany the ministers on their business-cum-pleasure outings? Imagine the saving in petrol and diesel, sound and air pollution, not to speak of clogging of traffic?

4. Whether to go for the Indo-US nuclear deal needs thorough discussion. However, endless rounds of discussion day in and day out doesn’t do anybody any good, except to our leaders from the Left. Unlike their Chinese friends and comrades, our left leaders are not terribly busy and have a lot of free time. So it is not surprising they want more and more discussions on the same topic. How about discussing an issue with lights and air conditioners blazing away till death over steaming cups of chai and endless supply of pakoras?

5. It is common knowledge that any project if finished on time saves a lot of man-hours, cost overruns and inflation. That too projects which would have saved thousands of gallons of diesel not to speak of petrol. Yet successive governments have delayed the project of doubling of railway line between Mysore and Bangalore, probably deliberately. This would have ensured faster, pollution-free and cheaper travel for the public apart from tremendous saving in diesel oil. Maybe there is a bus lobby, or a diesel cartel. Whatever it is, Government doesn’t bother to finish projects on time and/ or looks for scuttling such projects!

The indefatigable JDS supremo H.D. Deve Gowda has flagged off his election campaign. In an interview with Lakshman Hoogar of TV9 today, en route to Kolar, he said:

“I shouldn’t have been born in this State. No one is bothered to appreciate or acknowledge my contribution as the prime minister of the country. In fact, when I resigned as PM, they distributed sweets, drank milk, and burst fire crackers. One of the MPs remarked that I was only prime minister of Karnataka.”

E.R. RAMACHANDRAN writes: As the year draws to a close, still fretting about what a dismal job an economist is doing as prime minister? Ever thought how it would be if some other professional ran the country?

Let’s take a look at the one and only thing what’s likely to happen, if some of them occupied the PM’s chair:

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Carpenter: Charge salary on hourly basis and screw the cabinet.

Doctor: Hold the pulse of the nation, shake head and recommend a series of illegible tests.

Cab driver: Paint Lok Sabha yellow and black and run it like crazy.

Plumber: Plug the drains in RBI and wait for the currency to dry.

Intellectual: Argue each point and blame the politicians of previous government.